Evaluation Question 4

Q) How did you use media technologies in the research and planning stage?


During the process of creating my music video it would of been impossible without the use of internet technologies. Thing link was extremely useful for the analysis of magazine adverts because you can easily add a pin onto the image and then it was easy to see the evaluation point for that part of the music video. This year during A2 I have found the presentation of my blog much better, this is probably due to having a better understanding of where things are on the blog, also having my blog linked to Morgan and Indya's was useful as we could easily see what eachother was doing. I find that Prezi is more useful for evaluations than analyzing a music video due to only being able to write a small amount in each bubble which wouldn't be good for analyzing a music video. Powtoon is a great piece of software for putting a large amount of text into digital technology

Q)How did you use media technologies in the construction stage?

During construction I used my blog to store all of the drafts of the ancillaries (the digipak drafts and the advert drafts). Having my blog proved really useful as I could post things on it like screen grabs then Morgan and Indya could get them from my blog and vice versa. 

During A2 my skills of using a camera for media has massively improved. During AS you use a camera to take just still photographs for your magazine, whereas at A2 you have to film as well as take pictures using the same camera. During the construction stage of the music video whilst we were filming the shots I learnt a lot about the camera and different things you need to ensure you do to make sure you have the best result possible. One key point I learnt during my construction journey was to when filming on the camera ensure you start it filming a few seconds before the shot starts so it doesn't cut off the beginning of the shot, and similarly at the end of the shot leave it running a few seconds longer so the end it also not cut off. 

Similarly to the camera we also used a tripod at AS, however it had much greater purpose at A2. Having a tripod during the construction stage of our music video was crucial due to it enabling that the camera was still for every shot so the shots taken looked as professional as we could possibly make them. Also on the tripod there is a little spirit level on the side which tells you if the tripod is straight, this is a really useful feature as it ensure's that the shots are all equal. Having the tripod also aided us during shooting high and low angle shots by being able to tilt it so the camera was facing a new angle yet still still and level, to ensure the professional look was upheld. 

At A2 during construction Instagram was used to gather some target audience research and logo's for our company 'Rebel Records'. Using social media was a great way to gather target audience research due to reaching people of our target audiences age without them having to fill in a questionnaire. We found the results from this target audience research exceptionally useful due to gathering other people's idea's for our company logo to make sure the logo reflected the type of company we are.

Final Cut Pro X was a major piece of software used in the construction of my music video. At the beginning of my construction journey I found this software very overwhelming due to the enormous amount of functions that it had and that you could complete on it. I originally found it quite frustrating as I wanted to do things to my music video but I couldn't as I didn't know how to do them. After using the software a couple of times and having the practise run on Final Cut Pro X I really started to get the hang of it and understood where things were and how to do the functions I wanted to do. 

Turning the memories black and white:

 During our video we decided to make the memories obviously memories we decided to have them in black and white so the narrative was easy to understand that any of the shots that were in black and white were memories. We did this using the colour changing tool on Final Cut Pro X. Having the memories in black and white in my opinion created a nostalgic feel to the memories as Sophia looked back over them cutting from present to past. Also the violence/domestic abuse was shown in black and white, we decided to do this so that we could replay the memories later on, like we did repeating the slap. Having the memory repeated reinforced the message of domestic abuse into the narrative. To create synergy throughout our products we used black and white photo's on the digipak and the digipak advert.

Over cranking:

In the scene in the music video where Sophia is seen leaving the house we decided to use over cranking to show her at the end of the path. We created this by changing the speed of the clip, however we only wanted to change the speed of the end of the clip. To do this we used the blade tool to blade off the end of the clip so it was a separate shot and then we selected in and changed the speed of the shot. We decided to change the speed of the clip so the lyrics matched better with the visuals, as now the over cranked visuals are on the lyrics "I don't want to fall another moment into your gravity", changing the speed of this shot to fit to the lyrics also helped as we could then start the next shot which was a change in location at the start of a new line in the song which made the video look neat and professional.

Tools:

In this drop down tool menu in my opinion have the most usual tool on Final Cut Pro X. The select tool was really useful for moving the different clips around and especially at the beginning when we had to move our footage onto the time line using the select tool made it really simple to select what you wanted to from the time life or effects. The trim tool was extremely useful as it could shorten but also increase the length of shots if the timing had just gone off a little. The trim tool was especially useful when you added a transition in earlier in the timeline and it would knock the clips slightly out of time, so by using the trimming tool it was easy to just drag the end back a little to extend.  

Markers:

During the beginning stages of construction the markers tool was extremely useful. I used the markers when I had put the song onto the timeline and I was adding the footage. They were useful as I could find the part in the song where the clip was meant to go and then find the same part in the clip. Once you both of the markers was on the clip and the the song it was easy to line the two up which then put that clip in time with the music if it had been shot right.

Transitions:

After completing putting the music together and posting our rough cut it was then time to make the music video look more professional by adding transitions.  During the research stage of our music video we researched artists like Adele and Taylor Swift, from the research we found that they use a range of transitions and cuts. In the video we decided to use cuts mainly when it was changing from one location to another or when Sophia was singing straight away, however we decided to use transitions such as cross dissolve (like seen in the screen capture above) to add tension to the narrative. Using transitions such as blur and fade out allows the audience to see her emotion for longer when she's not singing.

Vignette mask 1:

In this scene where the audience see the slap scene repeated through a vignette mask, this was one for two reasons. The main reason there is a vignette mask here of a previous scene, firstly to reinforce the narrative of the video about domestic abuse, but also it was used to cover up some graffiti on the wall of a taboo word, which we didn't realise was there when we filmed the music video. However, in the end I think it worked really well and helped to reinforce to the viewer why she was so emotional.

Vignette mask 2:

Here we used the vignette mask in a different way, this time we put the vignette on to soften the edges of the shot. Using the vignette mask in this way made Sophia look brighter and made her more of the attention in the shot due to the corners being darker. This is showing how I have progressed through this journey, as I added these on at the end of the construction stage to give it more of a professional look.

Ken Burns:

We used Ken Burns on some of our shots to zoom them in/zoom them out. Kens Burns is effectively the same as just the zooming tool on a camera, however it is much neater. Ken Burns is really easy to use and has greats tidy results, which you probably wouldn't get if you just zoomed the camera in manually. We also used this tool in developing our creativity as in some of our shots that was things we did not want in them for example in the screen capture about there was a taboo word graffitied on the wall so we used Ken Burns to cover that up.

Disabling the audio:

One of the final steps of constructing our music was to detach the audio. To give the real impression that Sophia was our artist and she was actually singing, once the lyrics and the visuals were matched up we detached the audio so it was Sara Bareilles singing. Being able to detach the audio was also useful to use when in the sinking process as we could insert a clip, then sink it up and then finally to double check its in time detach the audio. 

Problems with changing the dress colour:

In the abusive scene where we see Jason the male character hit Sophia we tried to use the colour changing tool to try and make Sophia's dress red which would symbolise love, but also danger. This was something we had planned early on in the planning stage and make sure everything around it was right e.g Sophia wearing a read dress. However when we came to turn the dress red it kept the dress red, but there was patches of orange other places in the shot like on Jason's face, the cushion and the inside of Sophia's leg. We decided to take the red dress out as it looked unprofessional to have random orange patches everywhere.

Q) How did you use media technologies in the evaluation?

The making of:

In this production still we were filming the flashback scene to where the viewer see's Jason being aggressive by grabbing Sophia's arm and the first time Sophia is seen as being strong and leaves the situation, however Jason doesn't care enough to go after her. In the still all three of us was doing a different job to contribute to the filming of this scene. Indya can be seen holding a phone, she was controlling the music and reading the directions that we had made on our storyboards, Morgan  was giving direction and instruction from what he could see from the viewers perspective and I was filming the scene. The main problem we had during the filming of this scene was the issue of getting the lighting right, as the scene needed to be dark to reflect nighttime, however it couldn't be too dark or we would loose the facial features of Sophia and Jason. In the end we shut the blinds and the curtains, turned the main lights off and had fairy lights on the top and the bottom of the bed, however this was still not enough as there was shadows on the actors faces. In the end we got Amy one of our friends who was helping us out during the filming stage of our music video to stand on the table and hold a lamp aiming it at Sophia and Jason so their faces were light enough to see their facial expressions on the camera.

During our first two days of filming we realized that we didn't take many photos, or nowhere near enough photos to use for our digipak and advert. So during our third day of filming at Normanby Hall we ensured that we took lots of photo's so we had a variety to choose from. However, looking back on the photos the best ones we took were just of Sophia, as we took some with Jason on however they either looked too nice to say they were in a domestic relationship or they looked to staged which doesn't look professional to put on a digipak for a new star. 

Seen in this shot we used natural backgrounds and framing as much as we could when we were filming as it showed the vulnerability of Sophia in large open spaces. The shot that is being shown in the above production still is a shot that we were inspired for by Adele's 'Hello' music video for this shot, as we thought it would be interesting to explore as it shows her vulnerability. We took numerous shots similar to this one but just with Sophia looking in different directions.

In the photo Amy is appearing, she was a friend that we used who is incredible at makeup so she came along to our filming days to help us with the bruises we needed for Sophia.













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